One-of-a-kind photograph of iceberg that sank Titanic to be sold

A photograph of the iceberg that sank the Titanic is to be auctioned in America next month - thought to be one of the only images of the iceberg in existence.

No images taken from Titanic's deck survived the collision, which caused the loss of 1,502 lives.

The picture was taken by the captain of a different steam ship, the S.S. Etonian, two days before the fatal collision that sank the Titanic.

It was photographed in the correct area, and matches descriptions and sketches of the fatal iceberg.

A caption by Captain W F Wood identifies it as the 'blueberg' - tinted blue by the sun's rays - that sank the Titanic in three hours.

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Sketches by sailors on board the Titanic - including Frederic Fleet, the lookout who first spotted it - look 'eerily similar' to the photograph, according to U.S. auctioneer R R Auctions.

The 13"x11" photo will go on sale on December 13. It is expected to fetch $10,000.

The auctioneer says, "There are, of course, no surviving photographs of the iceberg taken from Titanic’s deck on that fateful night, several photographs of icebergs in the vicinity of the collision, taken before and after the event, have been offered throughout the years as candidates for the iceberg responsible for the disaster."

"The fact that the particular iceberg in the Etonian image offered here is known to have been photographed at a position arguably 2-3 days’ iceberg travel time to Titanic’s foundering position, and that it substantially matches both the sketches drawn by Titanic’s crewmen and the photo taken after the ship went down, allows noted Titanic experts to establish this photograph as capturing the iceberg everyone has been talking about for the past century."